Cars Live is a really cool broadcast from the BBC that documents the life of a car at… Plant Oxford, the primary home of the MINI Cooper.

The broadcast was done over two nights in the UK on October 20th and October 21st.

Our car was completed production on October 21 and was on the same production line as the show was filming – live!  Though it is doubtful it got any camera time, there were a few VINs shown during the show that I was able to confirm on BIMMER.WORK and yes, our car was in fact finished production at the same time based on the VINs I checked out.

Some interesting things I learned from the broadcast

• No wonder the car comes with about 30km on it – Each car goes on a test drive to confirm it’s okay over several types of pavement
• MINI/BMW have their own train sets that send cars to Southampton for shipping overseas
• Each train set can carry 300 cars over half a kilometre long
• It takes 3 hours to get to Southampton
• There are 2 trains every day
• The cars leave within 24 hours of completion
• There are at least 5 to 10 people who drive you car before you do
  • Tester
  • Transport from MINI
  • Transport off of the train in Southampton
  • Transport on to the ship in Southampton
  • Transport off the ship in Halifax
  • Transport on to the train in Halifax
  • Transport off the train in Halifax
  • On to a truck
  • Off the truck
  • Two or three people at the dealer

This could mean, our car, barring any issues is actually in Southhampton awaiting loading on a ship.

This is exciting!